Primary school places 2010

[toast]

I think Southwark admissions follow a national policy so would be the same as Kingston. I cant see that they give 'nearest school' enough consideration if there are all of these 'black holes'.

[Fuschia]

Smiler Wrote:> It might be worth someone doing a freedom of

> information request to Southwark to get similar

> information.

I have, actually!

[Smiler]

That's great Fuschia, did you find out anything useful?

Toast - I wasn't suggesting that Southwark would have different admissions policies, it's just that information is always useful and Southwark don't seem to publish it.

[Fuschia]

Smiler Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> That's great Fuschia, did you find out anything

> useful?

No answer yet.

[batgirl]

HerneHilly, I found a document on the wed dated 2004 where southwark predicited there would would a huge demand for primarey school provision. They have just chosen to do nothing about it. I also have a copy of a letter sent to Harriet Harmen from the head of St Anthony's in which he states

"You will be aware of our staement of case to increase our admissions number to 60 which, in Februaury of this year, was copied to you, another member of parliment for a local constituency, senior members of the dcfs, every local councillor and senior of the local authoritywith responsibility for planning. No reply from any of the above was received and yet we are told that this area of London is in desperate need of primary school places.The East Dulwich Forum has tales of parents being offered schools miles from home."

[toast]

There seem to be people researching this for telly on other threads, it would be a good example of the London crisis. Hope the media does pick it up. Might get this extra school intime for baby no2!

[hernehilly]

Thanks batgirl that's very interesting, I should have pointed out that at this meeting I went to the Southwark Admissions person did get given quite a hard time as it was obvious to all that they could have predicted the problem. The Lambeth Councillor got given a hard time too for that matter. At the very least Southwark Admissions must have realised at the end of Jan when they had the applications that they had a problem, but yet they did nothing and then seemed surprised that parents were upset in May when the letters went out. It's unbelievable.

[greenkin]

I attended a couple of those meetings with reps from Southwark education and tessa Jowell also. Nick Stanton and Pauline Armour catagorically stated that they was no population blip predicted this or last year, which is strange because I know from visiting neighbouring schools in Lambeth and Lewisham that those councils certainly did. All four schools we visited put on extra classes last or this year to cope with extra pressures. Rosendale went up to four forms this year to cope with extra demand, Kingswood to three, Eliot Bank on the other side of Southwark in Lewisham went up to three so how Stanton and Armour can say that there's no evidence of population boom is this borough is a little strange.

In one of the meetings also, Armour told us that St J and St C has a whole upper floor that's empty at the moment. Can't believe some pressure can't be put on them to increase a form size in this current situation.

[crescent]

Hi Greenkin, you mention that Eliot Bank went up to 3 classes this year to cope with demand. I was just checking: are you referring to this past academic year (08-09) or what will happen for the upcoming year 09-10? (Have 2nd child starting there this September, so quite interested to know what's happening there!)

Many thanks.

[Growlybear]

Although there has been a large increase in demand for primary places in Lewisham, the roll of Eliot Bank School hasn't been increased - there are still 60 places available for 2009/10.

[toast]

Hi thought i would share the feedback i have had.

Dear ,

Thank you for your recent emails and for copying me into your letter to Terry Parkin.

I fully understand and agree with you how important it is that parents feel that the school place they have been offered is both practical and suitable and that the school allocated is indeed local. Whilst many offers of school places this year have been within the statutory requirement of 2 miles from the child's home, the necessary travel routes and transport complications combined with arrangements for their other children means, that for a large number of parents, the practical difficulties are insurmountable. That is why I have been working with parents this year in order to put pressure on Southwark Council to listen to parents' concerns about the offers they have been made and about the manner in which Southwark has handled their enquiries.

Since problems in the East Dulwich area first came to my attention in early May I have been in regular contact with parents who have been in touch with my office and met with a group of 16 parents in early June. Following this some of these parents, local councillors and two members of my staff met with Cllr Nick Stanton, Leader of Southwark Council, to discuss their concerns.

I have attached below the contact details for the Advisory Centre for Education, a national charity which provides information and advice to parents on matters such as admissions for your information.

http://www.ace-ed.org.uk/

Their general advice line is 0808 500 5793. Community Legal Advice can also offer assistance in these matters and can be contacted on 08453 454 345.

It is Southwark's sole responsibility to assess the need for places in the area and plan accordingly. They have put forward plans and proposals for further funding from Department of Children, Schools and Families which I am fully supporting. It does seem Southwark has a problem in the sense that there is a surplus of places in the north of the borough and too few in the south and therefore the absolute need for extra places is a complex case to make.

However I sincerely hope that, working together, it will be possible to have extra provision in place so that parents do not continue to suffer the same problems that many did this year.

With best wishes

Andy Coates

On behalf of Tessa Jowell MP

[tallgirl]

St Antony's have an exta class this year, but it's in the juniors, so years 5 and 6 will be 2 form.

[Canning]

Southwark Council are notorious for being secretive. I know someone who is doing a PhD on Housing, he researchs all the local councils in London, he describes Southwark as Stalinist. Of course it must be awful for parents in this situation, Southwark are operating on a very old fashioned principle in education. It is called the 'bulge in the python' - the Council are assuming that the number of children in one year only is much bigger than usual for no real reason, hence the extra classes. I doubt that they have actually checked with other boroughs or birth registry. Please, please don't believe OFSTED their reports are subjective and mostly written off site with no reference to the real life situation in the school. Primary schools, because of their size fluctuate wildly, staff turnover is often high. This is because young newly qualified teachers often find the work in inner city schools not their cup of tea. Primary schools depend a lot on the personality of the head. This is a dreadful job, stressful and not well paid. As parents you can assist any Primary school you send your children to by being actively supportive and positive. This is especially true if the school has a new head or lots of new teachers.

[toast]

Thanks for your comment Canning, I do agree with the spirit of your comment

"As parents you can assist any Primary school you send your children to by being actively supportive and positive. This is especially true if the school has a new head or lots of new teachers."

A lot of people would be keen to do this. But there is no way i could be actively involved and supportive to a school 2 miles away. There is a case for supporting your community school. But i'll be blowed if i am going to go through all that (and your child being at a 'challenging' school is difficult) to support someone elses community.

[toast]

Peckham Rye Cafe/ club Tuesday 12 o'clock.

Lib dems there to see what we want. (see other thread posted yeaserday and sinking fast)

Lets make school places top of their campaigning agenda.

Hope to see as many concerned parents there as poss to make sure there are school places for our kids in the next few years.

[toast]

Call me optimistic but thought it worth a go.

We now have a facebook group

East Dulwich Primary School Places

[Smiler]

Good plan, toast!

[mrs.lotte]

Well there definately is a shortage of "desirable" places; several local schools are highly oversubscribed. Last year Southwark published a booklet about how to make primary school applications and this gave a breakdown of how many applicants there had been to each school. This year, as I understand it, they plan to give far more information to parents e.g no. of sibling places last year (roughly a third at Stj, dkh, heber and goodrich - before bulge class added) and how close you have to be to get in (it's a bit more complicated than that but i think most of the readership in this thread will be familiar with 4th and 5th criterion).

However although many of us were allocated a school 2+ miles away everyone I know was - eventually - allocated a local school albeit one they hadn't put in their initial 4.

Not trying to belittle toast's campaign at all; we had the most horrible few months until we were allocated Goose Green and still anxious about it but just to say that i anticipate that next year will follow a similar pattern; lots of people with allocation to far flung school then a couple of months later second offer to closer school.

This isn't going to get better only worse, I'm no expert on local demographics but common sense dictates that there is a need for another primary school in the area. In the meantime it seems to me in the interests of all local parents to support the local schools and press for improvement in those that are falling short. Good luck.

[Ko]

was in dulwich medical centre today and reading on the noticeboard about their expansion plans. said the surgery was built to deal with 7000 patients, but now up to 11,500 patients (although they do actively encourage new patients to keep on registering and haven't shut their books over the last few years).

said there has been an increase in local population and this is forecast to further increase. this seems to be one of the main arguments being used to increase surgery size - so assume that this argument will be put forward to Southwark PCT and planning authorities.

my point is that if one public body ((Health) seems to have figures re local population increasing, then these figures should also be relevant for other public bodies (Education).

biggest problem seems to be this issue about there being a surplus of primary places in north of borough, while the shortage is in the south.

[toast]

I really dont think we should accept the north south thing as an excuse. As it is just that an excuse!

They have seen this shift happening over the last 4/5 years. And its not going to just go away.

Does it mean parents in south southwark should have to brave rediculous london trafic to get to these schools? For many including myself those obsticals would actually be too big. My childrens childcare (my mum) could not do this 4 times a day (with a baby in tow) and their childcare and my life would have to totally change (which we cant afford or want).

The only reason everyone eventually found a place is that they ran an organised high profile campaign which had the backing of Tessa Jowell. Not everyone will have that next year unless we get organised

[Fuschia]

Local authorities do detailed projections of places required based on the birthrate and known retention/mobility. Many LAs are needing to adjust the predictions due to the crash in the housing market. Someone should put in an FOI request for all this data and discussions about it.. if my FOI request doesn't produce the goods.

[Ko]

toast - agree with you the north/south thing is a silly argument. there should be enough places for people to go to their nearest school. no one wants to be dragging a 5 year old on the bus everyday (and who's going to pay for mum's bus fare twice a day???), or having to get the car out to go to a school 2 miles away.

[edmama]

Am new to all the school stuff so any advice is greatly appreciated. My daughter was offered a place at langbourne which i wasnt very keen on as i couldnt find any reviews on it and it looked quite neglected when i went to have a look.When i refused the place she was put on the waiting list at heber (currently top ten)then i got a letter that she has been offered bessemer and i cant find and reviews on it either, can anyone tell me anything about the school? is it a good school? its a distance from my place (crystal palace road) but would not mind if it is good.If i took her there how would that affect waiting list that she is on?

thanks

[mrs.lotte]

No personal experience of BG but hearing lots of positives about it including dynamic staff, lots of investment and a great early years centre. I know that there are quite a few EDers who didn't get a place at their chosen schools who were allocated BG and are taking up the place (some discussion about it previously on forum - just put Bessemer Grange in the search) If Heber was one of your original 4 choices then you will remain on the wait list and your acceptance of a place elsewhere will not affect this. However if not one of your original choices and you added self to wait list after allocation you will have to specifically ask to stay on the list after you have accepted BG. However in saying that Southwark give conflicting advice on this so probably best just to double and treble check that you remain on list.

Are you a September start? if so what options do you have? Go for it, you might love it and i hear it's on it's way up.

We didnt get any of our 4 choices and eventually allocated Goose Green which is very close to where we live (very near you) quite a few of us in same boat; I take view that it is best to mentally commit fully rather than go with an attitude that it is only until you can get in on wait list as i dont think they'll be a great deal of movement and there's no point not commiting - the kids ae bound to pick up on it. Whatever you deceide to do - good luck!!

[citizenED]

Just got a letter from the Head Teacher at Goodrich today (our son is due to start Reception in Jan 2010)informing us that there are going to be extra Reception places in three Southwark schools from this Sept (2009). There will be 30 extra places at Goodrich and Crampton and 15 extra places at Lyndhurst. The whole expansion will be fully funded and staffed. The places at Goodrich and Crampton are temporary for one year only. The places at Lyndhurst are permanent. Apparently Southwark have received numerous late applications this year which has led to this dramatic turn of events.

edmama, do a search for Bessemer Grange on this site and you will find lots of information about the place.